Agyness Deyn on Her Transition from Fashion Model to Serious Actress (and Onscreen Stripper) in Pusher

Considered one of the top models of the 2000s, runway beauty Agyness Deyn has decided to shift focus from fashion to film at the age of 29. A chameleon in the beauty world—thanks in part to continuous variations on her usually short-cropped hairstyles—Deyn's first formal acting credit is 2010's Clash of the Titans, in which the model fittingly played Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love. To prove herself as more than just an unfairly symmetrical face, the formerVogue cover model veers into the seedy underworld of gangsters, drugs, and sex next, in the forthcoming thriller Pusher. In the remake of Nicolas Winding Refn's 1996 original, Deyn co-stars as Flo, the stripper girlfriend of the film's downward-spiraling drug pusher (Richard Coyle).

Deyn transcends any “model-turned-actress” preconceptions in Pusherby summoning vulnerability and impressive elegance, even when she writhes onstage at the exotic dance club. To secure the exhibitionist role, the high fashion model recorded a low-tech audition. “My sister did it, literally with a phone,” Deyn told VF.com on Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival, wherePusher is screening. “She was at work and I said, ‘I have to put this on tape!” So I ran to her [office], we printed the script, and we read the lines together. I was actually reading for the other part. Then I went in and read, and [director Luis Prieto] asked if I could read for Flo. I literally had two seconds thinking, ‘Oh shit.’”

Once she accepted the role, her next step was to experience Flo's world firsthand. “I shadowed a woman who works in the London strip club scene,” Deyn explained. “She's amazing at her job. She's an actress, a lady. She has such integrity and poise and works hard.” On top of the experience, the model says that she also earned some nasty bruises from training, and garnered the nickname “Bambi” from her mentor's colleagues. The opportunity to immerse herself in a character, Deyn says, and the sense of community on a film set is part of the reason why she decided to put her modeling career on hold.

“With modeling, you're on your own a lot,” Deyn explained. “You go in and you do your thing. You're working with a crew but it's quite separated. You kind of think that you're ten paces back from everything. But with acting, you're right there with all of these people and you feel safe. It was an experience that I was longing for, but I didn't realize that that experience came through acting. Once I did it though, the jigsaw pieces came together.”

Deyn first started considering a career in front of the other kind of camera four years ago, she tells us. “And then I thought, well obviously I have to experience it and learn it. So the little things I did, like Clash of the Titans, and the short films was getting my head around [the concept], and learning, you know, that ‘this is the set.’”

It was during that education process—“learning the reality of it”—when Deyn realized that acting, not modeling, might be her true calling. “That was the first moment where I actually thought, ‘I'm actually [acting] now.’ And then having this overwhelming feeling of being in love with acting. If I [could] sign onto this forever, I'm doing it. Done!”